10.10.08
Surviving
RG mail
Weekend Edition
October 10 / 12, 2008
Some Thoughts on How to Economize
The End of the Economy
http://www.counterpunch.org/ketcham10122008.html
By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM
The good news for economy – I use the word in its old, perhaps
archaic, sense – keeps on coming, but we are told the current
“economic†crisis is a tragedy for the nation’s living standards. Far
from it. First of all, let’s define economy. What we are hopefully
entering is a period of real economy, which means conserving, scaling
down, simplifying, saving, spending prudently and wisely and only for
the things that one needs. A decent meal of greens and simple protein
(I suggest beans and rice and spinach), good drink (Budweiser works
wonders), clothes and shoes that last and can be mended for the long
haul (try old military surplus and paratrooper boots), shelter that is
modest and affordable but functional and not a credit scam. Having a
beautiful wife or girlfriend who doesn’t like to wear clothing also
helps.
But everywhere the consensus trance holds that a slow-down of
consumption signals the End Time, the shuttering of hope, chance,
freedom. Look no further than how the New York Times spins it from
the usual gibberishing oracles: “The last few days have devastated the
American consumer,†says retail consultant Walter Loeb. Americans,
avers Loeb, “all feel poor.†Really? So too we are meant to believe
that “when consumers get concerned about…their country, they need
entertainment,†per the wisdom of the Entertainment Merchants
Association. So too is it “amazing how much even these 10-year-old
girls are aware that something is going on,†the chairman and chief
executive of Tween Brands tells us, who has been traveling the country
to “listen to moms and little girls.†And what does the CEO hear?
“Mom is saying, ‘I can’t afford that.’â€
Tragic, darkness at noon, a nightmare I tell you. The reporters in
the mainstream press, as dimly discerning as dreamers who know nothing
but the dream from which they can’t awake, escort us through the
envisaged circles of hell of this “unaffordable†world. The benefits
of the descent are manifold but tacitly unrecognized: the malls no
longer trap rats with credit cards, the casinos no longer suck blood
from the arms of degenerates, the lousy restaurants no longer make you
nauseous for $100 a plate (gasp – the Times reports that the
ungrateful citizens are eating at home!), the retailers no longer ask
you to throw away perfectly good shoes, the jewelers no longer sell to
serious adults the silly shiny trinkets meant for the pleasure of
cretins, the auto dealerships no longer peddle cars half as efficient
as last year’s model, the cellphone hawkers no longer sell the
I3869Zed Super-Iphone to burn out the brains and tire the ears, the
home builders no longer slap-dab junk homes in exurban fields meant
for farms that can sustain something we once called the future.
Nor, according to the New York Times, will the new blah-blah Super-
Blah be available, because of the contracting “economy,†and the other
new blahs from Blah Inc., and many other new blahs that Blah
Investments recommends – because the consumer just won’t make the
penny scream, won’t play the game. The game, of course, is predicated
on being an infantilized weirdo, a grasping entitled half-fetus on two
legs with a college degree crying “awn it awn it†from inside the womb
of cash, cycling through the drooled suggestions of the marketeers as
if our “freedom†depends on how much money we can waste rather than
how much we need to survive.
Like I said, recession is all good news, and not just for our brains
and souls, but for the planet and the real chance for Americans to
survive in some kind of non-debased, non-infantilized, non-crap-
inundated form – a race of fully matured and, dare I say, noble
creatures. Every time I hear the New York Times lamenting that the
average American refuses to open his billfold for bullshit, I envision
less metal in the junkyard, less garbage in the scow, less forest
turned into the Times, less pollution in the skies and water, less
stupidity in the shape of owning more. I also envision a resurgence
of cobblers mending the soles of shoes – cobblers who I can’t seem to
find anymore in these fair United States to fix up my boots.
If it’s true that consumer spending now accounts for two-thirds of the
American “economy†– god help us – then there’s nothing economic about
it, as defined above. In other words, if it doesn’t economize, then
the “economy†is not worth maintaining.
Christopher Ketcham writes for GQ, Harper’s, and many other
magazines. Contact him at cketcham99@mindspring.com